Details:

Creators:
Abu-Farsakh, Murad Y. ; Chen, Qiming ; Yoon,Sungmin
Abu-Farsakh, Murad Y. ; Chen, Qiming ; Yoon,Sungmin Less -
Corporate Creators:
Louisiana Transportation Research Center
Corporate Contributors:
United States. Federal Highway Administration
Subject/TRT Terms:
[+]
Foundations--Design And Construction Foundation Soils Settlement (Structures) Settlement Of Structures Soil Consolidation Soil Mechanics Soil Mechanics--Louisiana
Publication/ Report Number:
FHWA/LA.08/424
Resource Type:
Tech Report
Geographical Coverage:
Louisiana
Edition:
Summary report; Nov. 2008.
Corporate Publisher:
Louisiana Transportation Research Center
Abstract:
This research study investigates the potential benefits of using reinforced soil foundations to improve the bearing

capacity and reduce the settlement of shallow foundations on soils. To implement this objective, a total of 117

tests, including 38 laboratory model tests on silty clay embankment soil, 51 laboratory model tests on sand, 22

laboratory model tests on Kentucky crushed limestone, and 6 large-scale field tests on silty clay embankment soil

were performed at the Louisiana Transportation Research Center to study the behavior of reinforced soil

foundations. The influences of the different variables and parameters contributing to the improved performance of

reinforced soil foundation were examined in these tests. In addition, an instrumentation program with pressure

cells and strain gauges was designed to investigate the stress distribution in soil mass with and without

reinforcement and the strain distribution along the reinforcement. The test results showed that the inclusion of

reinforcement can significantly improve the soil’s bearing capacity and reduce the footing settlement. The

geogrids with higher tensile modulus performed better than geogrids with lower tensile modulus. The strain

developed along the reinforcement is directly related to the settlement, and, therefore, higher tension would be

developed for geogrid with higher modulus under the same footing settlement. The test results also showed that

the inclusion of reinforcement will redistribute the applied load to a wider area, thus minimizing stress

concentration and achieving a more uniform stress distribution. The redistribution of stresses below the reinforced

zone will result in reducing the consolidation settlement of the underlying weak, clayey, soil which is directly

related to the induced stress. Insignificant strain measured in the geogrid beyond its effective length of 4.0 ~ 6.0B

indicated that the geogrid beyond this length provides a negligible extra reinforcement effect.


Format:
PDF
Funding:
04-2GT
Collection(s):
US Transportation Collection
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:d0c4fae40140f29421b2395dcc7cc8569e6414cdb0dceac4770b93995d6b5145
Download URL:
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/17666/dot_17666_DS1.pdf
File Type:

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